This Week's Light Service Sermon

Light Service Sermons for the Month
Unlock Your God-Given Imagination
Your Imagination and Health
DATE: June 17, 2001
TEXT: John 15:7-10

As we begin today, I want to invite you to use your imagination and imagine that you're 72 years old. Now for some of you--like for example Maddison Stafford--that may seem like an eternity from now. For others it may be just around the corner. For still others, you may wish you were that young again. But imagine yourself at 72. What do you look like? What shape are you in mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually? How do you feel? What are your dreams and hopes for the future from that vantage point? Imagine what your life will be like when you're 72.
Now the reason why I chose the age 72 is because the average age of retirement beginning the year 2011 will slowly move from 65 to 72 in order to compensate for the limitations within the Social Security fund. (Sort of puts that $300-$600 refund check in perspective doesn't it!) So with that in mind, imagine again that you're 72 years old. Do you still have the energy you need to work full time? Are you fit mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually enough to put in a long 8-10 hour day? Are you living your life now in such a way that when you're 72, you're not only able to work full time, but you're healthy enough to enjoy a long retirement afterwards? Are you building in the habits now that will enable you to be who you imagine you can be when you're 72?
Most of us would like to make it that long, and all of us, if we do live that long, would like to feel healthy and strong so that we can enjoy life each day.
God has the same dream for us. You see, God created us for health and wholeness. His desire is that we live each day as fit as possible so that we might enjoy each day he has for us.
Today, as we continue our series on the gift of imagination, we're going to look at God's dream for our health and vitality and how the imagination can have a positive impact on our overall well being that we might be the healthy people God dreams we can be.
But before we talk about it, let's pray together.
Two old men were sitting on a porch in their rocking chairs. They both sat quietly, drinking in the sunset. Suddenly, out of the blue, one of them says to the other, "If I had known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself."
That guy makes a great point. We only get one chance at life. We only get one body. And how we choose to care for our body will impact the quality of our lives.
More often than not those of us who abuse our body end up paying the price. Our body wears out and breaks down long before it has to. On the other hand, those of us who take care of ourselves more often than not experience a greater sense of vitality and delight in life. In other words, the quality of our lives is directly related to the attention we give to our mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health.
As I mentioned earlier, God created us for health and well-being. Our body is a gift given to us by God and he wants us to enjoy it and care for it. And one of the tools he's given to us to help us enjoy health is the imagination. A growing amount of research suggests that the imagination and health are linked. For example, a positive imagination ignites positive thoughts, which in turn, in some instances, can be health and life-giving. So I'd like to take a few minutes today to look at how we can use our imagination in such a way that it has a positive impact on our overall health.
The first key for using the imagination to enhance our health is to imagine the truth about your body.
Imagine that someone you greatly admire and respect, someone important like Queen Elizabeth or Billy Graham or Michael Jordan or Katherine Hepburn bought your house at a price beyond your dreams and moved in. But they asked you to stay and run things. Even though they now own the place and live there full time, you have complete control of how things should be done around the house in order to keep it up. How would you treat the house? What kind of care would you give that place? What kinds of things would you do to make sure that the owner is pleased and happy with the house?
Now, imagine that your body is a house--and that the owner is God himself, your creator. That's what our Bible reading for today tells us. Let me read it for you again:
If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.
So part of imagining health is to imagine the great worth God places on you. He values you so much that he gave his son for you. He values you so much that by his Spirit he makes your body his home. He values you so much that he wants to live in and with you each and every day. And when you realize that your creator bought you and lives in you, you begin to treat yourself differently. You begin to value yourself and believe in yourself. You start to do the things that honor God by honoring your body. You find yourself willing to treat yourself with more respect. That's why I believe that health and fitness are spiritual issues--because the care of our body is a reflection of our honor for the God who created it. As Olympic champion Billy Mills put it, "My life is a gift to me from my Creator. What I do with my life is my gift back to my Creator."
So health and vitality come when we imagine the truth about ourselves, that God values each of us, which in turn motivates us to give special attention and care to our God-created, God-purchased, and God-indwelt body.
A second way the imagination can impact our health is to imagine health and well-being.
There's a story about a woman who was so certain she had an incurable liver condition that she went to the doctor to find out about it. The doctor assured her that she was all right. He said to her, "You wouldn't know if you had this condition because it causes no discomfort of any kind."
When she heard that the woman gasped, "Oh my goodness! Those are my symptoms exactly!"
Contrast that woman with Aunt Sarah. Aunt Sarah was celebrating her 99th birthday, making her the oldest resident in her community. Her 39-year old pastor was one of the guests at her party and as he was preparing to leave the event he said to her, "Now, Aunt Sarah, I hope that one year from this day I will be able to come and celebrate your 100th birthday with you." Aunt Sarah, without missing a beat, replied, "I don't see why not! You look pretty healthy to me!"
Two different people with two very different approaches to health and life. The first woman lived her life geared to sickness. Every moment was spent worrying about the next disease she might have, which in turn robbed her of life itself. Aunt Sarah, on the other hand, was geared to health and vitality. She saw no reason why she couldn't live another year. And she was able to enjoy life to the full.
The point is we all have a decision to make when it comes to our health--we can ignore it and hope for the best or we can choose to imagine health and do those things that keep us healthy.
As I've shared before, I'm committed to dying healthy. I want to do what I can to keep myself fit mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually, so that I can enjoy each day I have on this earth.
In order to do what I can to die healthy, over the years I've had to make some lifestyle decisions, which take some work and discipline.
For example, I've changed my diet over the years. When I was a teenager and then a college student, I lived on Big Macs and fries with a large cherry coke--full strength. Pizza was one of my major food groups. I have to admit that I loved to eat. Also in college, I even tried to smoke. It was the cool thing to do, and, unfortunately, beer was a Saturday night staple. However, I was still relatively tall, slim and could play a mean game of racquetball.
As I got older I began to realize that all of that fat and cholesterol could have a negative impact on my heart. As my body's metabolism started slowing down I found I couldn't eat as much. My Mom suffered several strokes as she got older and my Dad always telegraphed his entrance by a constant smoker's cough ultimately dying at 62. I decided I wanted nothing to do with smoking so I quit trying to look cool and I never did like to drink. And, of course, I desperately still try to watch my weight.
I belong to Bally's in the Valley and try to exercise three days a week. We bike on the weekends. I have learned to order to have energy you need to expend energy. I've discovered that exercise lowers stress, increases my energy, keeps my attitude positive, and enhances the quality of my life--which should really come as no surprise because God created us for movement.
I also do lots of reading, both for learning and for pleasure, in order keep myself in shape mentally, and I do devotions in the morning to stay fit spiritually.
As I said, it does take commitment and work to be and stay healthy, but the benefits far outweigh the negatives. And God's invitation to us, in order to experience his best, is to imagine health, and then do what we can to make that health a reality--to control the things we can, and to surrender those areas to God where we have no control.
For example, if you have a physical barrier that keeps you from exercising, imagine health emotionally and mentally. If you're struggling emotionally and just can't seem to get over the hump, perhaps a focus on physical and spiritual health can bring some much needed relief and perspective. The point is God has wired us in such a way that we can imagine health or we can imagine sickness. He invites us to choose health.
A final way in which the imagination can impact our health is to imagine spiritual vitality.
Study after study demonstrates the health-giving benefits of a dynamic spiritual life. And again, that shouldn't surprise us. Since God created us, since he is the source and foundation of life, it makes sense that vitality and health come when our lives are aligned with him--when our hearts are rooted in a relationship with him. In other words, a healthy relationship with God is the starting point for a healthy, dynamic life.
That's why God has gone out of his way to make that relationship possible. Because he wants us to be healthy and whole. Through Jesus God has removed the barriers that keep us from knowing him, barriers like sin, selfishness, guilt, shame, and so on, barriers that not only keep us from knowing him, but barriers that also have a negative impact on our health and well-being. And when we welcome Jesus into our lives, he aligns us with God. God becomes the foundation of our life. And as he brings health to our spirits, we find a new desire to be whole in every other area of our lives.
God's dream is that we be as healthy as circumstances allow. He wants us to enjoy wholeness mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. And as we surrender our lives to him through Jesus, we can begin to imagine that kind of health, and in the process begin to do the things that lead to a more fulfilling, satisfying life.
So I encourage you this summer to take God up on his offer and imagine health. You'll be glad you did.
AMEN